MB. S. HATfLET ON THE LINNEAN MS. OF THE ' MUSEUM ULBTC^.' 45 



Morion (an unnatural compound of Ehurna^ Auricula proper, 

 Pythia, &c.). 



Stro7nhus(a combination of the immature members of the received 

 genus with JPyrula, Fasciolaria, and other allied forms) . 



Cassida (nearly the modern Cassis). 



Fecten (equal to Lima and Fecten). 



Ghama (the Tapes of recent conchologists) . 



Fholas (chiefly composed of Artemis and Lucind) . 



It may be remarked, moreover, that the simple univalves com- 

 mence, and the bivalves close the series ; the exact converse of the 

 order in which they are marshalled in the two principal editions 

 of the * Systema Naturae.' 



I feel assured, after a careful study of the manuscript, that the 

 names eventually allotted to the shells of the ' Museum ' did not 

 result from a careful comparison of the royal specimens with the 

 typical examples in the private collection of our author, but were 

 attached to the species, either from the identity of the written and 

 printed synonymy, or from the general accordance of their described 

 features with the meagre characteristics enumerated in the prior 

 publication. 



The erased nomenclature of the species, however, was very dis- 

 similar, and was scrupulously based upon a supposed identity of 

 the specimens with those delineated by Eumphius, Klein, and 

 d'Argenville. Assuredly at that period of his career, our author 

 entertained the same profound respect for the laws of priority 

 which is professed by all modern naturalists ; and I hesitate not 

 to affirm that, from the crude and inharmonious theories of his 

 predecessors, he eliminated a system of Conchology that was 

 better suited to the requirements of the age he lived in than any 

 more elaborate arrangement would have been. For simplicity 

 attracts the student, whom a more complex (even if more natural) 

 method would repel ; and for the collection of an adequate mass of 

 materials wherewith, eventually, to build up a more symmetrical 

 and widely -based structure, a multitude of comparatively unskilled 

 labourers is more efficacious than a small knot of the most erudite 

 architects. 



Before inviting the attention of my readers to the original head- 

 ings of the ' Museum TJlricse,' and to my brief account of the 

 variations in the written copy from the text of the printed version, 

 I must premise, that it has not been my practice invariably to 

 notice, in the summary, such trifling difl"erences of construction as 

 the preferential use of the ablative for the nominative case, where 

 the verbal change involved no alteration of the precise meaning. 



